Ammunition manufacturers are reporting record profits and sales, with increases that number in the double and sometimes triple digits. Olin, which owns Winchester, reported last week the company’s first quarter earnings climbed 190 percent over the same period last year. Federal Premium Ammunition’s annual earnings for ammunition last year climbed 24 percent over 2011.

“Our sales are only limited by the amount we can produce,” said Joseph Rupp, Olin chairman and chief executive officer in a conference call last Friday.

Ammunition manufacturers are struggling to make enough and have hundreds of millions of dollars in backorders. They’ve added hundreds of employees and equipment and increased overtime, and, in some cases, are running factories around the clock. Producers have posted notes on all their web sites assuring customers they are working as fast as they can.

The demand is coming from existing gun owners. There may be an increase at the margin from new owners of guns. But the percentage of gun owners in the U.S. is below 40%.

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20 thoughts on “Ammunition Tight, Will Stay Tight”

Gary, that link to the 40% statistic appears to be to (based on the tone) a partisan hack's website. And the ownership data appears to be based on self-reporting, which people might be inclined to lie about when there's talk about gun bans, "assault weapon" bans, registration, etc.

I mean, if someone conducting a survey at the University of Chicago called you on the phone and asked if you owned guns, would you REALLY answer the question honestly and tell them that you did?

Remember, a phone survey taker has your phone number, and probably from that could easily get a name and address.

Answering a question like that honestly is liable to land one on certain "lists."

Ever sense this fraud and usurper barack hussein obama took office the sales of guns have gone through the roof and this illegal obama administration knows it . That is why they ( the dems and this illegal obama administration) is pushing gun control . Get ready patriots the you know what is about to hit the fan .

We are vulnerable to attack. Period. I'm trying to be an alarmist because someone has to be. Forget about trying to stay anonymous in this thing. They don't have to know whether you own a gun or not. When the time comes they will go house to house unless we have the means to show them that that wont work. They've known all along it doesn't matter if you have guns as long as you don't have the ammo to use them. Does the confrontation at Concord ring a bell, The British (Same Group that runs everything today) knew that if they confiscated the powder and shot the guns would be useless. If we've learned anything from this its A) WE ARE VULNERABLE, B) That the ammo and component companies are to blame. C) The government is complicit in this by overbuying hollow point ammo and lying to us that its going to be used for target practice. Face it, they are losing 10s of millions of dollars by not buying ball ammo for that. D) WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO STOCKPILE THE MEANS FOR OUR DEFENSE. NOT SOME COMPANY OR ANY AGENCY OF GOVERNMENT.

"Printed" money isn't really printed that much anymore. It's just an accounting entry keyed into a computer. Printed bills are mostly used for illegal transactions (drug cartels, etc) because it is difficult to trace. The fact is, the government and banksters want to trace every penny you spend and where you spend it.
Anyway – to answer your question. They like to tax people because stealing money from people that was EARNED, doesn't cause inflation. Creating it willy-nilly in a computer or printing it out of thin air definitely does cause inflation because that "money" has no human labor behind it to give it value.

They don't actually want to totally destroy the dollar because their means to a free lunch would then end. They prefer to suck the value out of our currency slowly, so that people don't immediately lose faith in it. The object is to keep the con going – and for that their thievery techniques have to be carefully balanced and calculated.

I'm aware of this and will not buy from them. But my point was that the article states "not adding capacity" being not quit true and if Remington opens a new plant and starts supplying the government it will increase the amount available to the public from suppliers we do support. But this is my theory on the subject and is dependent on the situation at the time when this new plant comes on line.

Remington should be boycotted as they took money from the NYS to build their new plant when other gun manufactures are leaving there un-constitutional states!!!!!!! Remington doesn't care about the gun owner or that they have made a deal with the devil cuomo!!!! I refuse to support a company that sells out gun owners for profit or blood money from Ocupied NYS scumbags! I live in NY and will be leaving soon to get outta this libtard shit hole!

Oh please. What self respecting gun owner would answer a cold poll call 'Do you have guns in your home?'

What a bunch of dribble.

Gun and ammo sales have been off the charts since Obama usurped power in 2008. Ammo makers can't crank it out fast enough. The shelves are bare. In Florida the number of CCW permit holders has swelled to well over a million. Classes are full nightly all over the state. The class I attended was over half first time gun owners. Gun shows all over the country have 1 hour waiting lines or more all day long just to get in. NRA membership has sharply jumped by more than a million members in the last 2 or 3 years. And there are many other groups that are growing as well. You don't need a poll to see that gun ownership is not only rising but rising fast.

One additional point.

The NYT article cited in at the '40% link above states:
"It lines up, he said, with two evolving patterns in American life: the decline of hunting and a sharp drop in violent crime, which has made the argument for self-protection much less urgent. "

Gun ownership has not been just about hunting, ever. Especially in the last 50 years. Any time a politician starts talking about the Second Amendment and hunting in the same sentence you can safely dismiss anything further he has to say.

Secondly, and this is the one that liberals just don't get, did it ever occur to you that violent crime is down BECAUSE gun ownership is up? Why would crime be down otherwise? People are just becoming more honest? Police are getting better at stopping crime before it happens? The planets are in closer alignment?

No, the correlation is unmistakable. More guns means less crime. Somebody should write a book on that. Oh wait, John Lott already did. An armed society is a polite society.

" F " em , I am making my own , bullets , powder , and SOON primers , and with the relatively low pressure of black powder my brass will last the rest of my life , and I am passing all this on to my children , grandchildren and , with a little more longevity , my great grand children .